9/11
USS Somerset
The crew and passengers of United Flight 93 are honored onboard the USS Somerset (LPD-25) commissioned in 2014. In both 2014 and 2015, the USS Somerset was the LPD open for ship tours during Fleet Week San Diego. It is well worth a visit if you happen to be in town whenever it is scheduled for future tours.
When you board the ship and enter one of the vehicle and equipment storage decks, photos of all the passengers and crew are displayed.
Passageways onboard, instead of being numbered, bear actual street signs donated by municipalities in Somerset County where Flight 93 crashed.
Steel melted down from a crane that was a landmark near the crash site were used in the ship's construction.
The helicopter hangar door is emblazoned with "93" and "Let's Roll" - the last words of Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer heard on a phone before passengers stormed the cockpit.
http://navylive.dodlive.mil/files/20...-ZZ999-001.jpg
http://911families.org/wp-content/uploads/Lets-roll.jpg
When you board the ship and enter one of the vehicle and equipment storage decks, photos of all the passengers and crew are displayed.
Passageways onboard, instead of being numbered, bear actual street signs donated by municipalities in Somerset County where Flight 93 crashed.
Steel melted down from a crane that was a landmark near the crash site were used in the ship's construction.
The helicopter hangar door is emblazoned with "93" and "Let's Roll" - the last words of Flight 93 passenger Todd Beamer heard on a phone before passengers stormed the cockpit.
http://navylive.dodlive.mil/files/20...-ZZ999-001.jpg
http://911families.org/wp-content/uploads/Lets-roll.jpg
Was airborne, North of Vegas heading for LAX. Early am coma until heard the controller talk to someone on another freq he was working mention the first WTC hit. Then it quickly descended into chaos. Felt bad for the controller, he was getting rapidly shifting information but did his best. Initially told we would have to divert to a Canadian airport which wasn't doable at our fuel state. Kept pressing towards LAX, ended up landing followed by the two Qantas 747s that used to land about the same time, then silence at one of the busiest airports in the world. A few hours of sequestering and then released to hotels. A coup,e of us went in on a rental car. SoCal traffic is notorious usually, no one was out on the road that day. Can only imagine bosses said to the employees, go home and be with family.
Was in NYC this weekend and visited the 911 Museum/Memorial. Very well presented and quite an emotional experience, particularly watching a lady sitting on the floor to have her photograph taken beside the photograph of her brother on the memorial wall.
I was at work that morning. The tv was on in the crewroom, tuned to BBC News when I walked in to see the first tower smoking.
I watched the 2nd tower hit and realised this was no accident. Then I remembered my mother was visiting NYC and her hotel was only a few blocks from the WTC and she had been to the top of the WTC the day before so I got myself excused, went home and watched the rest from there, repeatedly trying to contact my Mum, to no avail.
She eventually contacted us 2 days later to say she was fine.
Planning to visit NYC in the next 2 years. My first visit will be to Ground Zero and the memorial to all those innocent men, women & children who were murdered.
I watched the 2nd tower hit and realised this was no accident. Then I remembered my mother was visiting NYC and her hotel was only a few blocks from the WTC and she had been to the top of the WTC the day before so I got myself excused, went home and watched the rest from there, repeatedly trying to contact my Mum, to no avail.
She eventually contacted us 2 days later to say she was fine.
Planning to visit NYC in the next 2 years. My first visit will be to Ground Zero and the memorial to all those innocent men, women & children who were murdered.
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Was airborne in a VC10 K3 over the North Sea - flying a towline as my first day as a Captain on 101. All fighters were suddenly recalled to base and we were re-tasked to fly North, direct to Stornoway, meet an E-3 and offload any available fuel. Made some quick calculations for a min off-task with a VFR approach to ISK, then gave everything we could to the AWACS. The K3 had some extra radios and we had GEs onboard; we asked them to stop bringing the news forwards after the second jet hit.
I was on vacation, visiting family in Colorado, sleeping late. My mom woke me up, said my oldest sister had called - an airplane had hit the World Trade Center and I should get up. I was thinking 'Cessna', this had better be worthwhile. Turned on the TV just in time to see the second tower hit 
. At first I thought it was a 737, finding out they were 767s just made it worse (I've spent much of my career working the 767).
I spent the next several hours glued to the TV (although I missed the second tower collapse when it happened during a nature break). At one point I walked into my still-in-bed wife and told her "We are at war, we just don't know against who yet".
That night, with my gas tank near empty and a 300 mile drive the next day, I waited in line for half an hour to fill it - only to discover the next morning that it wasn't a concern...
A few days later I discovered - late at night - that there were simply no motel/hotel rooms available along the Interstate 70 corridor west of Denver as all those stranded by the airline shutdown tried to get back home. We finally found a hotel room at 4am after heading north on I-15
. At first I thought it was a 737, finding out they were 767s just made it worse (I've spent much of my career working the 767).I spent the next several hours glued to the TV (although I missed the second tower collapse when it happened during a nature break). At one point I walked into my still-in-bed wife and told her "We are at war, we just don't know against who yet".
That night, with my gas tank near empty and a 300 mile drive the next day, I waited in line for half an hour to fill it - only to discover the next morning that it wasn't a concern...
A few days later I discovered - late at night - that there were simply no motel/hotel rooms available along the Interstate 70 corridor west of Denver as all those stranded by the airline shutdown tried to get back home. We finally found a hotel room at 4am after heading north on I-15
I was at Linton on BFJT and flew twice that day. Dual in the morning and solo in the afternoon. I was first made aware as I walked in from the first trip when a mate just said go and watch the TV. In between the various stages of signing the aircraft in and debriefing more jets just kept crashing. My memories of the day involve various trips back to the crewroom as events unfolded and numerous calls on guard for FJ assets to return to base.
Hopefully we'll never see another day like it.
BV
Hopefully we'll never see another day like it.
BV
